Scion

Abilities

Favored Abilities

Favored abilities are basically “skills” that your character is particularly good at. For the most part, the basic FAE does not have a “skill” system per se, that is typically covered by stunts; however, in Scion Fate the normal stunt system has been replaced by Heroic Feats, which are supposed to represent something heroic. Mundane skills are represented by Favored Abilities, these are the mundane skills that a character has trained in or things he is naturally talented at.

A favored ability gives a +1 bonus to any action covered by that favored ability.

The following list includes all of the standard abilities for Scion. This should cover most of the things a character can do without invoking ichor. If you feel you have an ability that isn’t covered, feel free to propose additional abilities to the table.

Standard Abilities:

Academics: Academics is a wide-ranging Ability that represents the sum of a person’s higher education in the Arts and Humanities—everything from history to linguistics, literature, theatre and the study of law. Characters use Academics to better understand the world around them. Knowledge of history and divine legend are crucial to the children of the Gods, for example—and familiarity with the legal system couldn’t hurt, either. This Ability is also used to research topics with which the character is unfamiliar, using either the library or the Internet.

Animal Ken: Animal Ken represents a person’s experience in dealing with wild or domesticated animals. Characters use Animal Ken when attempting to handle or train a wild or domesticated animal. This Ability is also used when a character is trying to befriend or calm a hostile animal such as a stray dog or a wild horse, or to treat an injured or sick animal.

Athletics: This Ability describes a character’s physical fitness, coordination and endurance, as well as her skill in applying herself to strenuous physical activity. Characters use Athletics to climb walls, to leap from rooftop to rooftop and to swim across swift-moving rivers.

Awareness: Most people are reasonably alert and aware of their surroundings, but those with the Awareness Ability have honed their powers of observation to an exceptional degree. Characters use Awareness when they are searching a room or observing a person and looking for telltale clues about his intentions. It’s also used to detect hidden enemies or to foil sneak attacks.

Brawl: This Ability governs all types of hand-to-hand combat, from boxing to Kung Fu to no-holds-barred street fighting. Characters use Brawl when they fight using their hands and feet (and knees, elbows, teeth, etc.).

Command: Command represents a person’s skill and experience in leading people, whether it’s managing work teams in a corporate environment or guiding raw recruits into battle. Characters use Command when they need to direct or lead other people, especially in crisis situations.

Control: This Ability governs driving, piloting or riding any and all types of transportation, from horses to cars to helicopters. Characters use Control when they are in a high-speed chase in the middle of rush hour, when they want to show off at the local half-pipe or when they want to fly a helicopter through the open decks of a parking garage.

Craft: Craft is the Ability to make and repair useful objects, from chairs to clothing to car engines. Characters use Craft when building or repairing objects or equipment.

Empathy: This Ability represents a person’s skill at gauging the mental and emotional state of others and picking up clues about their motives or intentions. Characters use this Ability to tell if they are being lied to, to aid in a negotiation with a hostile party or to convince someone to open up to them.

Expression: This Ability represents the physical skill required to create or perform works of art and entertainment. Characters use Expression to sculpt, to compose or perform music, to act or to write.

Fortitude: Where the Stamina Attribute reﬂects a person’s innate endurance, Fortitude represents training and experience in deliberately hardening the body to resist physical punishment. Characters use Fortitude when they have to keep going in the face of pain, fatigue, sickness or intoxication.

Integrity: This Ability governs a person’s capability to resist the mental and physical manipulations of others and not be swayed by tricks, temptations or peril—be it as mundane as a slick car salesman’s pitch or as dire as a Titan cultist’s skinning knife. Characters use Integrity to resist deception, persuasion or manipulation or to keep from breaking under interrogation or torture.

Investigation: Investigation is the science of piecing together information from disparate sources to explain a mysterious event or expose the perpetrator of a crime. Characters use Investigation when piecing together clues at a crime scene, tracking down a missing person or looking into the financial records of a suspected cultist.

Larceny: Larceny is a broad-based Ability covering a wide range of illegal activities, from breaking and entering, to theft, forgery and fencing stolen goods. Characters use Larceny when they want to break into a building, steal a car, forge a driver’s license or buy contraband on the black market.

Marksmanship: This Ability governs a person’s capacity to operate and maintain ranged weapons, from bows and arrows to pistols, riﬂes and machine guns. Characters use Marksmanship to shoot at a target, to assemble or disassemble a ranged weapon, or to ﬁx one that has been jammed or damaged.

Medicine: Medicine governs the myriad skills necessary to diagnose and treat human illness and injury. Characters use Medicine to diagnose illnesses and injury and to treat them. It can also be used to determine the cause of a person’s death or to identify the properties of medicines and pharmaceuticals.

Melee: Melee governs the skill and experience to use close- combat weapons in a ﬁght, whether it’s a broken beer bottle, a knife or an ancient bronze sword. Characters use Melee when they want to hit someone with a hand-to-hand weapon, such as an iron bar, a two-by-four or a blade.

Occult: This is a broad-based Ability that governs a person’s familiarity with the supernatural, from the practice of magic to legends about Gods, ghosts and monsters. Characters use Occult to identify magical objects or rites, to research ways to deal with ghosts or monsters, or to find information necessary to infiltrate the closed circle of a Titan cult.

Politics: This Ability governs a character’s skill and experience in dealing with government bureaucracies, as well as her knowledge of how the political process works. Characters use Politics when they want to run for ofﬁce, to inﬂuence an election or to try to get things done through ofﬁcial channels without going through any red tape.

Presence: Presence is a person’s ability to use her charm and appearance to sway the opinions of others. Characters use Presence when they want to terrify their foes, motivate their allies or give hope and courage to the downtrodden.

Science: This broad-based Ability covers the natural and physical sciences. Characters use Science when they are identifying chemical compounds, making homemade explosives, plating metals or creating an electric ﬁeld.

Stealth: Stealth governs a person’s skill and experience at avoiding detection. Characters use Stealth to sneak past guards, monsters and the occasional landlord.

Survival: This Ability governs a person’s skill at surviving in a hostile environment with minimal assistance. Characters use Survival to live off the land in wilderness surroundings, to track people and animals in the wild or to stay alive when stranded in hostile terrain.

Thrown: This Ability represents a person’s skill at hitting a target using a thrown object, whether it’s a rock, a baseball or a knife. Characters use this Ability when they want to hit a distant foe with a thrown knife, a spear or a loose brick.